he TARDIS
materialized once again outside 13 Paternoster Row. According to the scanner,
it was a foggy night with only the gas lamps serving as a usable light source.
The Doctor preferred it that way. He did not want to attract unwanted attention
while visiting his friends. But the scanner also showed a temporal anomaly in
the area. It did not indicate whether there was any danger, so the Doctor
decided he would deal with it later. He looked down at the gifts he had made
and hoped Vastra, Jenny and Strax would appreciate them. After gathering up the
packages he had so carefully wrapped, he stepped out of the TARDIS and made his
way to the front door. He knocked and Strax answered.

‘Doctor!’ the Sontaran exclaimed. ‘What brings you here?’

‘The need to say thank
you,’ the Doctor replied as he entered the foyer. He looked around. ‘Where are Vastra and Jenny?’

‘In here, Doctor,’ Vastra called from the sunroom. The Doctor followed her voice and found the two of them sitting in their wicker chairs. Jenny was embroidering
and Vastra was reading the latest issue of the Strand magazine.

‘Keeping up with
Sherlock Holmes, are we?’ the Doctor inquired.

‘Indeed,’ Vastra said. ‘I’d very much like to meet Mr. Conan Doyle and have a word with him as
to the depiction of crime-solving in his stories. He should know that it is
impossible to tell a person’s gait from their footprint.’

‘Well, that’s why
crime-solving should be left to the professionals,’ the Doctor said. ‘I’ve brought you all some gifts that I think should you help you in that
regard.’ He held them up.

‘Gifts?’ Vastra said, intrigued. ‘What’s the occasion?’

‘I want to thank you
for all the times you’ve helped me. I think it’s long past time I did so. Come
on. You can open them in the drawing room.’ He entered the
drawing room and laid the gifts on a table. Vastra, Jenny and Strax joined him.

‘I must say, Doctor,
we were all very concerned we might not see you again after last time,’ Jenny remarked. The Doctor thought back to his last encounter with
them, how he had emerged from his own time stream carrying the unconscious
Clara.

‘She’ll be all right,’ he had told them. After silently making their way back to his TARDIS,
he had simply taken them home with no questions asked.

‘It was your grave we
were standing in, wasn’t it?’ Jenny continued.

‘Yes but that’s all in
my future,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Let’s just focus on the here and now, shall we? Time
to open your presents. Strax, you first.’ Strax tore away the
wrapping paper and found he was holding a long object with three lenses
attached to it.

‘What is this device?’ he asked.

‘It’s a sonic
lorgnette,’ the Doctor answered. ‘Since you’re a nurse, I figured you could use
something like that. Each of the three lenses has a specific function. The blue
one allows you to x-ray people, the yellow one is for diagnosing illnesses and
the red is for thermal imaging. And there’s an on-off switch.’

‘I believe I am
supposed to express something humanoids refer to as ‘gratitude’ but I cannot
remember precisely how I am supposed to do so.’

‘The phrase is ‘thank
you’, Strax,’ Vastra said firmly.

‘Ah yes, that’s it,’ Strax said. ‘I can remember that.’ A few moments of awkward silence passed during which
it become apparent that no “thank you” was forthcoming so the Doctor continued.

‘Jenny, you’re next.’ Jenny opened her present, which turned out to be a sonic gauntlet.
There were numerous wires and gadgets attached to it.

‘Thank you, Doctor,’ Jenny said. ‘But what are all these things for?’

‘Well, since you saved
my life by picking a lock, I figured you’d appreciate something that would
allow you to pick locks faster and more efficiently than before.’

‘How does it work?’

‘You slip it on your
arm and you use all these bells and whistles to help you break through locks.
There’s a frequency modulator, you can measure the conductivity of metals in a
lock and most importantly there’s a mechanism that makes locks fall apart.’

‘I guess I can get rid
of my old lock pick kit now that I’ve got this.’

‘It’s a remote control
for your carriage. I’ve encoded it with special software so that you can summon
the carriage whenever you need it. Just yours, of course, not anyone else’s.’

‘I see. But how do I…’

‘You just take it out
of your hat and your carriage automatically travels to wherever you are.’

‘Won’t it arouse
suspicion since there won’t be any horses pulling it?’

‘People will probably
just assume it’s a prototype for what will come to be known as the ‘horseless
carriage’. The pin also expands into a sword, by the way, but that’s only to be
used in an emergency. You understand?’

‘Of course, Doctor,’ Vastra replied. ‘I shouldn’t think I’d have occasion to use it that much. But it’s good
to know I have an extra sword on hand. And the dinosaur feather is a nice
touch.’

Suddenly, there was a
knock at the front door. Strax left the room to answer it. ‘You’d better hide the presents,’ the Doctor said. ‘I don’t think the people of Victorian London are quite ready for sonic
technology.’ Jenny nodded and took the sonic devices out of the drawing room. Strax
returned, followed closely by a mustachioed man in a bowler hat.

‘Inspector Gregson!’ Vastra exclaimed. ‘So good to see you. What brings you here?’

‘Some nefarious
business, Madame Vastra,’ Gregson replied. ‘Oh, I see you have company.’ He indicated the
Doctor. ‘I could come back later.’

‘It’s quite all right.
The Doctor is a friend. I’m sure he can be of assistance.’

‘Very well. Is your,
er, companion at home, madam?’

‘Yes, she is,’ Jenny said, reentering the drawing room. ‘And the word you want
is ‘wife’, not companion, inspector.’

‘Right,’ Gregson said begrudgingly. ‘Anyway, Scotland Yard
have heard from a number of our contacts that a secret society have been
holding meetings throughout London recently.’

‘Yes, Doctor,’ Gregson replied. ‘However, our contacts have reason to believe that this particular
society are planning something, shall we say, sinister. One of its members was
overheard saying that London, and indeed all of Britain, needs to be ‘improved’
and that ‘drastic measures’ must be taken in order to do so.’

‘I think that even you
would agree there many things about this world that need improving, inspector,’ the Doctor said. ‘How do we know their intentions are hostile?’

‘We don’t but we can’t
afford to take any chances.’ Gregson turned to Vastra. ‘Given your success in dealing with London’s criminal underworld, I felt
it was best to come to you.’

artwork by ANDY LAMBERT

used with permission

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